Characters

Synopsis

SpongeBob is at boating school, and Mrs. Puff announces that there's a new student. His name is Flatts the Flounder, and he tells SpongeBob that he is going to "kick his butt". SpongeBob at first assumes him to be joking, but Flatts soon makes it clear that he really means to beat up SpongeBob. SpongeBob, who takes this extremely seriously, tries to seek help and to reason with Flatts, but to no avail. He eventually runs away into town, where Flatts attempts to run him over with a garbage truck, while he eventually drives over a banana peel, causing it to flip over. Flatts awakens in the hospital, where he learns that SpongeBob saved his life by performing CPR on him for five hours straight. Despite this, Flatts continues to pursue SpongeBob. When SpongeBob runs through town, some people kick an old man's butt who they think is going to kick SpongeBob's butt. The old man was by a bus stop and a guy asks "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?" Eventually, he corners SpongeBob in his own home, where he proceeds to beat him up. However, SpongeBob's spongy body absorbs the blows, and he is unharmed. Flatts continues to hit SpongeBob nonstop throughout all of next week, until he finally faints from exhaustion. His classmates cheer for SpongeBob. However, pitying Flatts, SpongeBob starts a speech, which ends with him making a fist. Mrs. Puff enters and sees SpongeBob making a fist, and believes SpongeBob beat up Flatts. The episode ends with Mrs. Puff saying "I'm going to kick your butt!" to SpongeBob.

Trivia

While this is his first lead role, this isn't Flatts' first appearance on the show. He has appeared up twice. The first time was in Sandy's Rocket, when SpongeBob and Patrick mistaking everyone as aliens, SpongeBob catch Flatts who opens the mirror where SpongeBob hides. The second time was in Texas, when Sandy isn't going to leave, Flatts is shown dancing with a purple gallon.

Flatts fully intended to kick SpongeBob's butt. He even made a sand version of SpongeBob and kicked it. What he did to SpongeBob was punch him, definitely not kick him. This is most probably the biggest con in SpongeBob history, and it may have been that the editors knew that kicking SpongeBob would take effect, and punching him wouldn't, but they did not have time to change the storyline. SpongeBob has been kicked several times before, the first in Naughty Nautical Neighbors.

This episode, along with "Just One Bite" are the only episodes from season 3 to be aired in 2001.

When the uncut version of "Just One Bite" was aired, "The Bully" would be aired first, and "Just One Bite" second. However, when the scene was deleted, the order of the two episodes is reversed. In some TV guides, the episode is still listed as "The Bully; Just One Bite".

Flatts is seen driving a dump truck in the episode, which makes the fact that he is in boating school seem illogical. However, he could be in here for a very similar reason as Squidward in Boating Buddies.

When Patrick is talking to SpongeBob on the phone, Patrick says Flatts was his "Community College Buddy", implying that Patrick went to college.

When SpongeBob runs to the bathrooms, there is a flyer that reads, "Join the Glee Club".

When Flatts first walks into the classroom, it shows that the school leads outside. Later, SpongeBob is standing in a hallway, where the door would lead to. The hallway also appears in New Student Starfish.

Flatts apparently recovers from his injuries to chase SpongeBob out of the hospital within less than a minute.

When SpongeBob asks to be excused for the rest of his life, Mrs. Puff denies his request, despite desperately wanting to be rid of SpongeBob; further more, she shows no dislike toward SpongeBob in this episode. She also does this in New Student Starfish.

Charlie is purple instead of blue and wear a green pants instead of red in this episode.

(Running Gag) Twice during the episode, SpongeBob runs in fear from Flatts, and inadvertently points to a old fish (possibly Old Man Jenkins) when he says Flats is gonna kick his butt. The citizens of Bikini Bottom, led by Harold, are angry at this, and try to beat up the old man.

Flats seems to move another town after this incident due to being absent for a long time.

When SpongeBob tells Mrs. Puff that Flatts plans to kick his butt, she angrily says "there shall be no butt-kicking in any class of mine!". But earlier, when Flatts introduced himself to the class, he said "I like to kick people's butts" and Mrs. Puff responded with laughter. Though, this is probabilty because Mrs. Puff thought Flatts was joking.

In most of the parts, Flatts is not flat. The most round picture of him was when he rips of his shirt and chest hair which says "I MEAN IT".

Pizza Castle, the restaurant that Patrick mentioned, is most likely a parody of Pizza Hut and White Castle, even though the latter does not serve pizza.

Mario from Pizza Castle (also mentioned by Patrick) was mentioned again in Suction Cup Symphony by SpongeBob when he said "sounds like Squidward ate at Mario's last night".

There is no dialogue between the part where SpongeBob says "I get to go to work tomorrow" and the part where he asks Flatts if he was okay.

When Flatts sees his dad, he asks Flatts about talking to strangers, implying that his dad never met SpongeBob before.

When the class is clapping, there's an old lady in the class.

Running Gag: The Bikini Bottomites attacking the Old Man.

The reason Flatts wanted to kick SpongeBob's butt is never explained.

Cultural References

Patrick refers to SpongeBob as Mario without knowing the difference. Mario is a Video Game Character in the Super Mario Bros. series.

Errors

Captions misspell Flatts as "Flats".

When the students are clapping for Flatts when he first enters the class, SpongeBob can't be seen anywhere.

When SpongeBob crashes into Flatts's dad's boat, there is only 1 seat, later it shows Flatts in the car, too. Also the steering wheel is shown on the right side where-as in other episodes the steering wheel appears on the left.

When the Garbage truck is idling behind SpongeBob, it says "Bikini Bottom Garbage". Later, it is blank.

When Flatts was making a Sand Sculpture of SpongeBob and kicking it, you can see that Mrs. Puff's mouth isn't moving while she is heard talking. Flatts was just trying to have fun with SpongeBob.

Earlier Mrs. Puff said there is no butt kicking allowed in her class as she stated to SpongeBob, but close to the end when she misinterprets that SpongeBob beat up Flats (the latter really got exhausted and fell unconscious), she yelled out that she was going to kick his butt for that.

When Mrs. Puff writes on the blackboard, you can see an octagon with the words "GO". The octagon shape is used for stop signs.